Image information, as is commonly communicated through a network or Internet system, is ultimately appreciated by an operator through electronic display, or physical printing of the document onto a piece of paper by a marking engine like a printer. The system architectures for transmitting print jobs from one point to a remote location by employing either a local or wide area network are well known. The flow path for the job data and control data that define the print job is usually from the network and then through an interface program block (usually computational hardware) implemented in or attached to the marking engine as part of its normal functions. Such program blocks, commonly referred to as the Digital Front End (DFE) of the marking engine, were developed as computational entities that perform the complex task of converting a document presented as a Page Description Language (PDL) into a form that can be printed by a specific marking engine. Its intended function is limited to the image path alone. Asking a DFE to perform additional functions stretches the design intent of the device and further constrains the bottleneck that exists in decomposing images. The additional functions that are required are those that stabilize the behaviors of the marking system, enable specialized rendering algorithms, and perform the management functions that support the normal operation of the device. Thus, the DFE is primarily and best only concerned with receiving print job data from a network and translating that data into marking engine printing signals such as byte definitions per pixel. Current system architecture disposes the DFE as a solitary network interface for most document processing devices. Thus, any data communication to the marking engine, be it job, control, software or otherwise, needs presently to be directed through the bottleneck of the DFE intermediate the marking engine and the communication network.
This limited system architecture gives rise to a series of data flow problems inherent in trying to achieve bi-directional connectivity through the DFE and the marking engine.
Many combinations of marking engines and DFEs are manufactured by different entities. Accordingly, the data flow through a variety of different DFEs and respectively associated marking engines normally presents practical problems, the resolution of which requires negotiations between DFE manufacturers and marking engine manufacturers in order to try to achieve the desired bi-directional connectivity through the DFE. Due to the number of entities involved, the different operating characteristics of the various marking engines and the various DFEs, such negotiations have been largely unsuccessful. Thus, printer management, diagnostics, image processing, and other control path data flows are essentially held hostage to the system implemented operating features determined by the various DFE manufacturers/vendors.
There is a continually escalating need for enhanced printer communication with the network to communicate job and printer status information to and from users/customers, and for providing advanced marking engine functionality to such customers to facilitate better system operation. The interposition of the DFE between a printer and a network precludes direct inquiry of the printer since communication must be through the DFE. When the DFE is structured to inhibit, or at least limit, the communication of relevant printer information to the printer or back to the network, system operation, as well as practical information concerning job assignments, will usually suffer.
Document Processing devices (“DPS”) refers to a set of devices that construct, produce, print, transmit, scan, store and archive documents and their constituent elements. Such devices include marking engines, printers, scanners, fax machines, electronic libraries, and the like. The present invention addresses situations particularly relevant to printing systems and discusses them as a prime example of a Document Processing System, but should not be construed to be limited to any such particular printing application. Any DPS is intended to benefit from the advantages of this invention.
The subject invention is directed to overcoming the problems resulting from typical present architectures wherein a DPS system is assembled so that the DFE is connected between the communication network and the DPS. Although such architecture readily permits the desired flow of image data files over the network to the DFE for rendering and subsequent processing by a DPS, any information that the DPS can provide back to the network, or any non-image data that is available for improved system management, must pass through the DFE. Since such flow path communications may vary between different manufacturers, there is a long felt need for a system that can facilitate marking engine control information to and from the network, without requiring a flow path to a DPS through the DFE.
The present invention overcomes the above recited problems to provide a system architecture which allows direct communication between a network and a DPS, thereby by-passing the DFE controller, and providing substantial value-added services to the benefit of system users.